 The collaboration was wonderful. Ali Zafar and Atif Aslam together is a huge draw, they are the biggest stars we’ve got. Saeen Zahoor and Arif Lohar are legends and thanks to Coke Studio, they have a whole new audience dying to listen to them. But a collaboration like this isn’t easy. There is a huge gap between pop stars and folk singers, a difference in attitudes, approach, exposure that make collaborations tough going.
Out of everyone, Saeen Zahoor was probably the toughest one to deal with. He is a purist and is not easy with commercialism. However, he has experienced Coke Studio so he knows the power of fusion music. And though recently, Coke Studio has reminded us of this power again, fusion music has been around for a while. Perhaps the best example of it would be Allan Fakir and Mohammad Ali Shyhaki singing “Humma Humma... Teray ishq mein jo bhi doob gaya”. Then there was Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s famous collaborations with Peter Gabriel and Michael Brooks. Then we had Junoon who added a tabla player to their line up and Azadi, their ode to folk music was the one that broke records. Also the band Fuzon with a classically trained vocalist juxtaposed against rock riffs and bass lines. Fusion works very well and it has to be tapped into.
Compared to Saeen, Arif Lohar was makhan (butter). He’s a down to earth, really nice guy. However he’s also bemused by the Coke Studio phenomenon. He told me, “I’ve been singing Jugni forever and a girl comes and sings the chorus and becomes a huge star.” But he takes it in good spirit. Saeein Zahoor and Arif Lohar are big folk stars but they have to realise the importance of the commercialisation of music. That is what opens doors and makes everything bigger.
 I think that’s why Coke Studio has been so important. It has created a trickle up effect and a trickle down affect. Arif Lohar may have been singing Jugni for years but there is an audience that hadn’t heard it nor had they heard ‘Aik Alif’ by Saeen. Then there is an audience that didn’t know Atif or Ali Zafar till Coke Studio happened. Ali especially won a lot of fans through singing ‘Allah Hoo’ and ‘Dastaan e Ishq’ - people who would not have heard ‘Channo’.
And Ali Zafar for me is not just a star, he is a mega star. He has looks, talent, a friendly nature and is very humble and accessible. He was all over the World Cup. In terms of commercialism he’s got Pepsi. Lipton and Mobilink Jazba. He knows how to market himself. And when it comes to collaboration, he was the one building bridges between Saeen Zahoor’s unwillingness to go with it when it comes to the collaboration. However, it must be said that Atif was dying to collaborate with Saeen Zahoor. He may not be a classically trained singer, but he has the guts to get on stage with singing legends like Saeen and Arif Lohar. Atif is not fazed by anything. That’s because his star power is undeniable. This was a concert for the Priority Banking customers of Standard Chartered, the upper crust of society but even so, we had to get men to keep them away from the stage when Atif was performing. That’s how wild he drives them.
However what musicians need to realise is the power of collaboration. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Atif Aslam are probably the Pakistani musicians who tour the most. They have a set of musicians who are a part of their team and they have a set routine. Collaborations give them the chance to do something different. If you’ve seen Atif and Rahat or Ali Azmat live, you may not want to see them for a while, but Atif and Ali Zafar and Saeen Zahoor and Arif Lohar together, that everyone will want to see.
 I remember a night in Malaysia when we were there for the Lux Style Awards. At night a bunch of us would get together in Ali Azmat’s room and him, Ali Zafar and Atif would sing each other’s songs and I remeber thinking there that this is amazing. Everyone would want to listen to this. That night is where the idea for Style Symphony, Catwalk’s 20th anniversary show came from. I had the Strings sing Vital Signs and Fuzon sing Atif and Ali Zafar sing everyone from Nazia Hasan to Hadiqa and it was fantastic. Musicians should do more of this. It creates a wave of nostalgia and revives their music.
And really, Saeen Zahoor might be a purist and Arif Lohar may wonder about how hot Coke Studio and collaborating with Meesha Shafi has suddenly made him but what they want is respect and, of course, recognition. Respect their music and they will sing. They want to sing - it’s what all musicians live for.
And our folk musicians have untapped international power. I remember, when we took Pappu Saeen to London for a show with a bunch of pop musicians, it was when Pappu Saeen was rehearsing that the goras came in from the streets and the offices around to see where that beat was coming from. We feel the power of folk too, it touches our soul but we take it for granted. In the West, they’ve never heard anything like it. And not just the West - once we took Goonga Saeen to Japan and within days, there were groupies following him around - Japanese girls. That’s the power of what they do and it must be put out there. It’s not just the people who listen to sufi music at shrines who are interested in it. It touches everyone.
Then it’s about exposing our own younger generation to the music that is our history. Purists may not agree with Runa Laila or Naheed Akhtar being remixed for the Lux Style Awards, but when they are, my nine year old daughter can relate to those songs. To be kept alive, the music has to be brought back and reinterpreted.
 The Standard Chartered Priority show was a piece of cake for me. Fashion Week will be painful. Everything is so last minute. 26 different shows with 26 individuals, who all want to do different things and the shows have to look different. Music is a breather. I am sort of like the overall manager and coordinator here, bringing people together and watching what they do. The musicians are huge stars, way bigger than any designer. And Shahi Hasan does such a fantastic job of bringing it all together.
And it excites me to do music concerts. I remember doing Coke Jashn-e-Baharaan for Basant in 2007. There were 25,000 people there. That energy just takes the show to a whole new level. Unfortunately now you don’t get NOCs to do shows on that scale, neither are sponsors interested in them because of security concerns. However, I get so many clients coming to me and saying, “Coke Studio karna hai.” And as great as Coke Studio has been, it needs to be done live. Hopefully we’ll get back to having concerts some day. Till then, musicians need to come together for sponsored shows to keep that spirit of live music alive.
And on that night, as I saw the crowd move to the beat and got so many requests to make this an annual event, I really missed the Lux Style Awards. They have been scaled down because of security concerns and recession but they need to come back. There is so much creativity in this country and it needs to be put out there |
